I noticed in another question that you said to tack glue the tiles and cut the locking tabs for floor to carpet transition. Would you use the same process from the tile to the hard wood floors. I love your product already and my sister told me about it and I am very excited and ready to start on my kitchen. I find your site informative; I have already found a lot of answers to my questions from your discussion board and that I can special order tiles through Menards at the service desk. I notice that several people on the discussion board are in Wisconsin and so am I. The Menards in Madison on the Westside only has three colors to choose from until I went to your website and found that we have other colors to choose from.

Regards
Carrie .

Avaire Archive

06-22-2009, 07:04 PM

Author: Jonathan
Date: 4/15/2008 8:45 pm EDT
There are two options at an Avaire tile to wood floor transition. One would be a butt joint similar to the carpet situation. However, the butt joint may not look as "clean" with wood because with carpet, the "fullness" of the carpet fibers tends to fill the space between the two surfaces.

The other option would be to use a "T" transition that anchors to the subfloor between the wood and the Avaire tile and covers each. In that case, you would not need to run an adhesive bead under the Avaire tile since it would be held tightly down by the transition piece.

We're happy to hear our website and the message board is helpful. Our goal is to make every interaction with Avaire tile - whether learning about the product, installing it, or enjoying it in the years to come - a truly delightful experience for our customers.

Avaire Archive

06-22-2009, 07:05 PM

Author: Chris
Date: 4/16/2008 7:15 am EDT
If your wood floor is the same height as Avaire tile, butting directly to the two floors will look beautiful. Avaire tile and wood flooring expand and contract at different rates, so a bead of flexible caulk should be placed in the space between the two floors.

If the wood floor is a different height than Avaire tile a reducer molding will need to be installed to transition the two floor heights.

Jonathan is correct, a t-molding or an overlapping reducer will eliminate the need for caulk and adhesive at the transition.

Avaire Archive

06-22-2009, 07:06 PM

Author: Johnie Easter
Date: 4/19/2008 9:57 am EDT
I have been considering the avaire tile for my kitchen. It will butt up against a hardwood floor but my wife does not want the "T" moulding. I saw in the above post to use a caulk between the 2 floors. I was wondering if the flexible grout for the tile would work for this also?

Avaire Archive

06-22-2009, 07:07 PM

Author: Jonathan
Date: 4/19/2008 12:50 am EDT
The potential issue with using the Flexible Grout between the wood and the Avaire tile is the typical shrinkage and expansion that occurs with wood. A caulk is better suited to handle that much movement. Typically, in the dry winter months, the wood will shrink noticably, and expand in the more humid summer months (at least in the midwest climate). I'd be concerned about possible separation at the wood interface if you don't use a caulk. There are sanded caulks available at various home centers that come very close to matching the Avaire Flexible Grout colors.

Avaire Archive

06-22-2009, 07:07 PM

Author: Journeyman
Date: 4/23/2008 7:41 pm EDT
There is another option for making transitions to various other floor covering products that are of similar thickness as the Avaire tile.

Schluter Systems makes some great metal tile edgings in various thicknesses. Schluter metal tile edging in the required thickness can be special ordered from all Home Depots.

Avaire Archive

06-22-2009, 07:08 PM

Author: Dan Weingarten
Date: 7/7/2008 4:29 pm EDT
I'm looking into this transition problem also - I am using a single width of Avaire tile 13 feet long to deal with the transition between 2 existing 80 year old hardwood floors (1-1/4" maple on 1 side, 2" maple on other). Some say Schluter is the way to go, but 1 installer, who could have sold me Schluter joints, said that since the Avaire Flexible Grout is acrylic, it will be flexible enough to handle the expansion and shrinkage of the wood (butt ends of the wood up to the tile on both sides). I'm guessing 26' of Schluter joints would put this little project somewhere in the $200 range, with my 'free' labor. Others, like here recommend a caulk that matches the "Mushroom" flexible grout. I've also seen a recommendation for running a wood edge on the butt ends so that movement in and out of the tile area is limited, or rounding off the butt ends of the wood with a router and using the sanded caulk between the wood and tile. I assume it is best in this situation to cut all the tabs on the 2 sides that face the wood flooring. Any comments on any of this will be appreciated.